UAE: A trailblazer in women's empowerment

Abu Dhabi (WAM): A UAE paper has said that in several countries, women have no place to seek refuge in when their battle for equal rights hurls them into the line of fire. "Amid this pall of gloom and doom, the UAE stands out as a shining beacon of safety and security for the fair gender. The country hosts about 200 nationalities from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds", said 'Gulf Today" in its editorial yesterday. It continued, "These expatriates work and live in full-on peace and harmony. Safety for women here is a given; a woman can walk alone in the streets after dusk, even late in the night, and harm will not dare to touch her. Thanks to the leadership's benevolent patronage, women in Emirati society do not suffer the ills that plague their counterparts in other countries." "Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, Permanent Representative of the UAE to the UN, has aptly spotlighted the UAE's rock-solid backing to gender equality and women's rights and empowerment. At a high level event of the General Assembly of the United Nations on the Contribution of Women, the Young and Civil Society, Nusseibeh said that the United Nations and its bodies, including UN Women, is a central partner to ensure that gender equality is at the centre of the post 2015 development agenda." "The UAE is making sterling strides where women's empowerment is concerned. There are four Emirati women ministers in the Cabinet, four women judges, two public prosecutors and 17 women assistant public prosecutors and marriage officials, and three ambassadors. Emirati women also occupy 60 per cent of the technical jobs such as medicine, teaching, pharmacology and nursing. They have also joined the regular forces such as armed forces, police and customs." "Whether it's embarking on expeditions to Antarctica, skydiving, writing, taking part in scientific research or helming key organisations, Emirati women are showing that they are full of enterprising and innovative brio." "The recent directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on the provision of houses, plots and financing to build houses for Emirati widows and those married to foreigner husbands are commendable. In an equally praiseworthy move, Sheikh Khalifa issued a decree entitling children of foreign fathers born to Emirati women to apply to access Emirati nationality when at 18. The children will enjoy the same health and education services as Emiratis." "Nora Khalifa Al Suwaidi, Director of the General Women's Union, said that the UAE national woman is a partner in the development process, citing the full support to women outlined by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, a legacy being sustained by the current leadership", concluded the paper. – Emirates News Agency, WAM